Mayor Bower: Miami Beach Can't Do Anything About Urban Beach Weekend

Miami Beach is largely helpless to stop Memorial Day partiers from coming to town for Urban Beach Weekend, which saw seven injured and one killed in police-related shootings this year, city Mayor Matti Herrera Bower said Tuesday afternoon. According to police, more than 400 were arrested.

"There is no organizer, no event. It's just there," she said, emphasizing that the city does not control or issue any permits for any of the long weekend's events. She also claimed heavy monitoring from the ACLU handicaps the city's ability to increase enforcement.

It's a different situation than the city's increased spring break enforcement, she said, because "they're not there saying 'you can't search that cooler'" at spring break.

Is the American Civil Liberties Union that influential over government decisions? "I guess so," she said.

Officials

added that more than 500 area police officers were working on South

Beach this weekend -- this, combined with staffing costs that included

paying those who collected 177 tons of trash in the area, cost the city

an estimated $1 million.

Bower said she

understood residents' concerns that the damage outweighed the benefits

of the weekend's festivities, which drew between 150,000 and 200,000

people but saw one man killed and seven injured in police shootings. In total, 431 people were arrested, up from 382 last year, according to Miami Beach Det. Juan Sanchez.

"We are also up in arms... We have put up with this for 10 years," Bower said, but "there's not many options."